Wessa Fluff AUs
by ashesandhoney
Summary: These are various Will/Tessa all-human AUs. Each chapter is a different scenario. (to those of you who have this as a story alert: yes this used to be College Party and that is still Chapter 1)
1. Drugged at a Party

Tessa had had enough that when her friend put her name down on the karaoke list, she didn't fight or argue. She got up and sang. It wasn't a hard song, it was one that her aunt had sung back in the little apartment in New York when Tessa had been young. She hadn't needed to read the words. She had just sang and the bright blue drink with the cherry in it made sure that she didn't worry about whether or not it was good.

She'd come to this party because she'd been invited by a friend who thought she needed to get away from studying. She did but this was not how she wanted to do it. It was a house party, loud and raucous and uncomfortably warm. Now she was drunk and singing on stage. When it was finished the self consciousness rushed back in and she hurried back to the anonymity of the crowd.

"I didn't know you could sing," a boy said as she stepped down and she grimaced at him. She wiped it off her face fast but for a moment she actually grimaced. He didn't notice or assumed it was for some other reason. He was very good at assuming that every "no" she gave him was actually for another reason. Her friend who had put her name in the song book called him, Friendzone when he wasn't around.

"Andrew," she said as a greeting. She wore boots with low heels and they suddenly didn't feel as stable as they had when she had put them on. She had a sudden terrified vision of falling over and Andrew catching her and thinking himself some sort of knight in shining armour.

"I didn't know you could sing," another voice said and it was mocking and accented and Tessa's idiot heart stuttered. If Andrew was Friendzone, this voice belonged to Jackass. He was a fiercely smart British exchange student and he was beautiful with black hair and impossibly blue eyes. But he was still best described as Jackass.

"Excuse me, I need to go sit down," she wavered and tried to step through them. Andrew reached out to take her arm and guide her and she recoiled from his hand. Jackass, the one from her Brit Lit class who said brilliant things and then leered at girls as they went by, that Jackass, hit him. A flat palm in his chest, a shove really, but it send Andrew reeling. Tessa turned to watch and her balance went. The same hand that had shoved Andrew, caught her arm and pulled her upright. She hadn't realized she was tipping.

"I don't feel well," she admitted.

"There's a very good chance that has something to do with the fact that you seem to have gotten drugged. Or you really can't handle your booze. Where did your friends go?" he asked.

She blinked at him, frowned, and he swam in and out of focus. He was holding her upright. She couldn't have done it on her own. A piece of her mind processed what he'd said and panicked. She didn't have any idea where her friends had gone. He pushed her down into a sofa and she leaned forward to put her head on her knees.

"So now you're picking up the falling down drunk girls, a wonderful new hobby, William," a soft but surprisingly angry voice said from her side and there was a hand on her shoulder that was gently comforting.

"Someone gave her something," the asshole who must be called William said.

"Not better, actually much much worse," the other one said and he was tapping on her shoulder trying to get her attention and she couldn't rouse herself enough to look at him.

"I am not going to leave her on the dance floor when she can't stand up and she couldn't tell me where her friends are," William said sounding defensive. "Jesus Jem, I'm a flirt not a monster. Now tell me what to do with the half-unconscious girl because I have no idea in all of hell. I don't know her name. She likes Dickens and has an impressive memory for poetry but I don't know her name or her friends or where she lives."

"You know what writers she likes but you don't know her name?" the angry voice was less angry now that he seemed sure his friend had good intentions.

"She's in a few of my English classes," William said and Tessa finally pushed herself up to look at him. He still wouldn't focus. A smear of dark hair and a flash of blue eyes. She was going to say something about being remembered but the words wouldn't come. When she sank back, she did it into his shoulder rather than folding up onto her lap again. He shifted as though uncomfortable but she couldn't find the energy to move again.

"Do you have a crush on this girl?" Jem asked.

"No, I do not have crushes on girls. Girls have crushes on me, it works better that way," Will said.

"You are full of it. You like her and now she's always going to remember you as the guy who probably drugged her," Jem was laughing now and rather than be annoyed that he was laughing over her while she fell unconscious he made her feel just a little safer. If that angry protective note was gone from his voice, she mustn't need protecting. It was irrational but she hung onto it.

"I did not drug her," Will said.

"I know that, you know that but the rest of the student body believes that you are an asshole Casanova with an arrogance problem. They'd believe you drug a girl. They are wrong on that but they aren't wrong on the arrogance thing, just for the record," Will sighed but Jem was still talking, "Your reputation could do with some improving."

"I like my shitty reputation," Will said. He crossed his arms, she felt them move, and Jem laughed again. It was the last thing she heard before she fell completely unconscious against Will's shoulder.

It was after 4 in the morning when the party had settled to scattered knots of the still awake that Tessa started to wake up. Her head hurt and her stomach churned and she was lying on something warm. She blinked her eyes open to see knees in jeans. She'd fallen asleep on someone's lap. There was a hand in her hair and her knees were draped over someone else.

"I thought this only happened in bad movies," she muttered and pushed herself upright. Her memory was a black hole which was terrifying. She'd never been that kind of drunk before in her life.

She looked around. Her knees were draped over a linguistics major she had only ever seen from a distance. He had been notable from a distance. He was unsettlingly beautiful up close and he had a book open on her knee. He was reading. At 4am. At a frat party. With a girl passed out on his lap. He was reading and the book wasn't in English.

"How are you?" he asked with a flash of genuine concern.

"Fine," she said because she couldn't look at someone like that and tell him the truth of how hard she was trying not to vomit on his shoes. He helped her up so that she sat in the space in the middle of the couch. She looked at the person whose lap her head had been resting on.

"I am so sorry I passed out on you the two of you," she said looking at the sleeping face of the guy from her lit class who knew more of the canon than she did and had a horrible attitude. He was beautiful in a completely different way than his friend. He was the kind of handsome that stopped a room, Adonis in the dark. She wanted to slap herself for that thought. Asleep, he was distinctly less intimidating but still beautiful.

"Will did haul you off the dance floor when you passed out. It's his fault," the beautiful boy shook ink black hair out of his eyes and leaned forward to shove Will in the face until he woke up scowling. His eyes met Tessa's and the scowl vanished into alarm before smoothing out into a charming smile that seemed much less real after she'd had a glimpse of the two other reactions.

"I'm going to get you a glass of water," Will said and then he was gone. She blinked at the spot he had vacated. He'd gone from asleep to moving like a lightening bolt in a split second.

"He will kill me for saying this but he likes you," the boy she was left with said, leaning forward as though telling a secret.

"That guy doesn't like people, he likes boobs," Tessa said.

"Will recognized you from a distance, went over to watch you sing, knows every class he ever had with you and has all your favourite authors memorized. I think he likes you. He's also never spoken to you which might seem like evidence to the contrary but trust me, it's a sign he likes you. He had a bit of a panic attack when you passed out and I think if he ever finds out who brought you to this party and then left you half-conscious and alone, he's going to hurt them. I'm probably going to have to stop another fight even if they deserve it. He is not nearly as much of an asshole as he pretends to be," he said.

Tessa stared at him and then suddenly she was making apologies and checking her pocket for her keys and then she was leaving. She was leaving because no one had ever told her that someone had been watching her and memorizing her favourite authors and getting into fights on her behalf. She was leaving because she was sick to her stomach and her hair was a mess and she was suddenly staggered by the weight of the what-ifs from the party.

She left before he got back with her water. She left before she told him her name.


	2. The Poet-Thief 1

"kiss me"

"Kiss me," the girl had put a warm hand on Will's arm and turned him towards her. He stared at her. Tall, narrow, long brown hair twisted back into a messy bun. Eyes like mist and secrets that if he stared at them long enough he'd be able to write a poem to capture them. Grey sweater, jeans, battered shoes and a handbag from a department store not a designer.

Familiar. Still, it took him a long time to place her as Nathaniel Gray's sister. Nate "thinks he's a hustler" Gray's baby sister was standing in front of him with her hand on his wrist. He was thinking about writing poetry about her. No matter what came next, it was going to be a terrible idea.

"What did you say?" he asked.

"I said, kiss me," she repeated.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because you look scary with the tattoo and the leather jacket," she said.

"Yes," he said leaning into her to see if he could intimidate her away, "It's all part of my early warning system. Like snakes or poisonous frogs that are bright colours to scare away predators. Except I wear dark colours to scare away little girls who don't want their hearts broken. But maybe you do? Do you want me to break your heart Tessie?"

Her name didn't surprise her. She knew who he was and knew that he would recognize her. He was both disappointed and impressed by her lack of reaction. Did she know that he was the kind of dangerous her brother played at? Will hadn't been arrested yet but that was only because he was smart and fast. It would happen eventually. He was a thief who played at being a poet. Small time but bigger with every heist.

"There you are!" a voice came from down the street and Will didn't quite straighten up but he raised his eyes. He had put his mouth almost to her ear as he'd spoken and he was suddenly very aware of the smell of her hair and the warmth of her. He looked up at the man on the corner. Older, far older than her. Slicker and better dressed than the criminals Will worked with but still there was something about him that said: one of the downworld.

Tessa inhaled sharply and and tensed when she heard his voice. She got tenser as he approached. Will straightened as he did but stood a little closer to her too.

"Is this guy bothering you, sweetie?" the man asked.

"No," she said immediately and Will understood the request she had made before. She needed someone to put between herself and this man. Will wrapped an arm around her shoulder and she slid into the space between his leather jacket armour and his chest. Her arm rested around his waist but her hand was a tight fist where it was hidden against his lower back.

"You need to come back with me, we have a meeting with Nate," he said.

"Or she could stay here with me. Nate always comes back around on his own. Like a bad penny or a rash where you wouldn't want one," Will said. He casually flipped a knife out of his pockets and played with it where Tessa couldn't see it but the man could. He could play up his own dangerous and crazy if it kept this person from touching her.

He kept the knife in hand. A threat and one that he was surprised to find that he was willing to act on if he needed to. She knew who he was and she had still chosen him over this man. Will wasn't prepared to betray that kind of trust. No one trusted him.

"Miss Gray," the man tried again but Tessa tucked herself in a little tighter to Will and he finally did as she had asked. He tilted her chin up and pressed a kiss to her mouth. She tasted like cinnamon candies and waxy lip gloss. He kissed her a little harder and she loosened her fist only to tighten it again in his shirt so she was holding on. He had a knife in one hand and her face in the other.

Will heard the man say something else but Tessa's hand was on his neck and she was kissing back and he'd given up on anything else mattering.


	3. Pen Pals

Pen Pals

The letter arrived with the little airmail stamp on the corner and Will immediately stopped flipping through the letters. His parents collected up his mail and brought it up to him at his dorm when they came up to take him to dinner sometimes. Most of it was bank statements and sometimes mailers from his school but this was different.

It had been more than a year since he'd received one. They had been frequent throughout high school, almost weekly when she was feeling lonely but had dropped off and then suddenly vanished. He held this one in his hands and smiled at it. He had a single room so he could gawk at letters without anyone to notice him.

He made himself wait. He didn't open it right away. He got a drink and a snack and settled down in the not very comfortable chair and opened it slowly. It was almost a month old. His parents hadn't been up recently and it had probably been sitting on the hall table for weeks.

He read it slowly, taking time to appreciate her hand writing and the way she put thoughts together and the little pilfered bits of poetry that slipped into her writing.

They had been assigned partners in 5th grade for a writing activity. Write letters, send them across the ocean, receive responses. After the school year had ended, she had snuck her actual address into the envelope that was sent to him. This was against the rules but he had written to her all that summer and every year since.

Reading this one was like coming home. He hadn't realized how much he missed her words.

Then there at the end was this:

"I'll be in London for a few weeks with my brother. He's got some bonkers business venture that's probably a pyramid scheme but I won't turn down a place to stay. I'll be there from the 13 to the 26th. Maybe we could finally meet?"

She had included a street address and a phone number. He snapped up and lunged for his phone. London was half a country away and it was the 24th but he punched in the number anyway.

"Who's this?" said an American but male voice on the the other end of the line.

"May I speak to Tessa?" he asked.

"Tessie, who the hell did you give this number to?" the voice called out. There was some shuffling and some conversation he couldn't make out.

"Hello?" she was just a little bit breathless when she answered the phone, like she had run for it. Why hadn't it occurred to them before to call? They could have used skype. He didn't even have her on his facebook. They'd just traded letters like it was the 19th century. Every picture he had of her was five years out of date. Why had it taken so long to hear her voice?

She was his center. The solid thing that held him together when his sister died in that car crash and when he didn't get into the school he had wanted and when his first girlfriend had broken up with him. She held him together and he'd never seen her.

"Hey you," he said.

"Will?" she said.

"Yeah, if I got on a train now," he crossed the room and opened his laptop, "I could be in London by 10."

"I thought I'd lost you. I didn't think you wanted to meet," she said and her voice was soft and beautiful in spite of or maybe because of the New York twang in it. He tried to picture her but the girl with the round cheeks and the braces from the most recent picture he had didn't match up with this voice.

"I'm away at school. My parents only brought the letter up today," he said. "So, 10, you'll go out with me tonight?"

"Is this a date?" she asked and there was a teasing note in her voice. She was probably smiling. She was probably beautiful and he'd finally get to really find out.

"We've got two days before you get back on a plane," he said, "It can be anything you want it to be. You have been my best friend for almost ten years, Tess. I have wanted to meet you all of that time. We'll do anything you want to do."

"Do you want me to meet you at the train station?" she asked.

"No, I'll come to you," he said and the comment about a date had set his mind turning. There were things he needed to pick up between the station and her flat. He smiled like an idiot at his phone. He hadn't realized how badly he wanted this.

"Wear comfortable shoes," he said to her before they hung up and he ran for the station to spend money he didn't really have on going to see a girl he'd probably never see again.

When he made it to her brother's door, she pushed past her brother's attempts at posturing and pulled Will away immediately shouting, "Bye Nate," over her shoulder.

Once they were in the elevator she stopped to look up at him and smile like he was the most incredible thing she'd ever seen. She was beautiful. She was beautiful and already knew all his secrets and still smiled at him. He had planned out things to say and instead he passed her the single flower he'd bought from a dilapidated bin outside a corner shop. It wasn't a rose but she took it and broke off the stem and tucked it into her hair.

The elevator door slid open and they didn't notice for a moment because she was looking at him and it was like hypnotism, he couldn't look away. She moved first, she put her hand on his chest and leaned up and kissed him gently. He caught her face between his hands before she could pull back and kissed her properly.

Her back was to the mirrored back of the elevator and the doors slid shut and they still didn't notice. He had knocked her flower askew and they didn't stop to fix it. The elevator doors binged and opened on the seventh floor and an elderly couple was standing there. That they did notice. They both turned to look at their audience.

"Maybe we'll wait for the next one," the woman said and she pushed the button and the doors slid shut again while Tessa and Will stood there, tangled in each other and staring. She started to laugh. She leaned into his chest and giggled until he could do nothing but join her. When the elevator made it back to the ground floor, he took her hand and fixed her flower and drew her out into the London night.


	4. The Poet-Thief 2

Poet Thief 2

(a continuation of the first Poet Thief chapter)

He took her back to his place, curled in under his jacket until the man who had been following her was well gone, then a little longer. She didn't talk. She held to his waist and let him hold her like they'd been dating for years but she said nothing.

In his apartment, he sat her down on the bed. He didn't have other furniture except for a bookshelf and a hat rack that he hung his jacket on. It wasn't that he didn't have money. It was just that it had never occurred to him to care about where he lived beyond a place to sleep and a place for his books.

Then he made her tea. He had meant it when he had told her that he was a snake and she was better off far away from him but his mother was Welsh and the Welsh made tea like it was going to solve all of life's problems. He handed her the cup, guessing how much sugar she liked, and she took a sip without complaint.

He sat down beside her. Not close, just there. It had been a hell of a kiss. It had been the kind of kiss you look for your entire life. It had been amazing. Nothing about the way she was tucked into herself now said that she wanted to try it again. Will rummaged in the crate he used as a dresser and found a clean sweater. He wrapped that around her shoulders like a shawl.

She looked at him with grateful eyes.

"Have I entered an alternate universe or did you really just crack a smile for me?" he said and it worked. It pulled a real smile out of her.

"I left Nate behind," she said.

"Nathaniel Gray is a grown-ass man," Will said, "How did you get involved in his problems anyways? Last I heard, you were the family success story going away to college."

She smiled again, "Nate called me, said he had got into some trouble, asked me to come. I don't think he knew the type of people they are."

Will looked sideways at her as she drank tea, wrapped in a big wool sweater he would have died before he wore in public but hadn't thought twice of showing her. Her brother had called her into some sort of drug den or sex club and she'd had to run. Now she was feeling guilty about it. Will considered leaving her here while he went to find Nate and beat the hell out of him.

"You did the right thing getting out of there," he said.

"What if they hurt him?" she asked.

"Well he deserves it," was not what Will said. It was what he thought but he stopped it from coming out of his mouth. He put a hand on her back and she leaned into him again. Will looked up at the ceiling and tried to think of things that could be said to her.

"If it isn't safe to go home, you can stay here," was what he did say. She inhaled sharply and shuddered. He pulled her in so he could hold her against his side. She hadn't considered that it might not be safe to go home. She didn't belong in the world he lived in. She belonged someplace cleaner and safer, where people owned chairs and received pay checks instead of dirty envelopes of crumpled bills.

He rubbed her back and she drank her tea and they were silent but not alone.


End file.
